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Lunarcy Quilt: Year of the Ox Block Release Day (Final installment)

Happy New Year! Happy Lunar New Year that is, wished for you for this coming Friday – the 12th of February 2021. Holy cow, it’s goodbye Year of the Rat 2020 and heeeelloooo Year of the Ox!

Why all the ox-citement? Well, today marks the end of our epic 2020 Lunarcy quilt pattern journey. It is time to release of the Year of the Ox pattern, the last of our twelve collectible animal appliqués representing the Chinese zodiac. With all twelve appliqués now available to you, they can be ...

Lunarcy Quilt: Year of the Tiger Block Release Day

I was, for a very long time as a child and teen, fascinated with big cats; especially tigers. So beautiful, sleek, powerful, mysterious – I had tiger shirts, tiger jigsaws, tiger books, tiger toys….. I even had a real tiger whisker, given to me by a keeper at the Adelaide Zoo. I loved everything about tigers (except the smell!). I would have probably traded a kidney for a domestic orange cat with black stripes in the likeness of Jim Davis’ Garfield, just so I could pretend I owned a mini tiger.

Lunarcy Quilt: Year of the Rabbit Block Release Day

The Chameleon is a Rabbit. He argued his case last week to be a Dragon, but the prosecution asserts that he first popped into existence in 2011. That is, during the most recent Year of the Rabbit. And a birthday is a birthday – so a Rabbit he is, and a Rabbit he must stay.

Actually, the Chameleon seems to be taking the rebuttal quite well now, really. He says he likes being a Rabbit after all. Rabbits are dangerous and scary. Super scary. Take the specimen on our latest colour scheme ...

Lunarcy Quilt: Year of the Dragon Block Release Day

Should it be any surprise that the Chameleon thinks he is a Dragon?

A Chinese legend concerning the origin of the dragon tells of an Emperor who waged war with nine tribes. As he defeated each tribe he added features of their totems to his own. Thus the dragon ended up with a lion’s mane, bug eyes like a shrimp, a big mouth like a bull, a nose like a dog, whiskers like a catfish, antlers like a deer, scales like a fish, a long tail like a snake, and ...

Lunarcy Quilt: Year of the Snake Block Release Day

What do you call a python with no clothes on?

Snaked.

Hissssterical, right?! Well, my 10 year old lad thought so. Bahahaha.

Just dropping in with some Chameleon hiss-trionics to distract you from real life. 2020 might be hiss-tory but it seems that some of the dramas are taking a while to scale back. So while we patiently ant-hiss-ipate better times ahead, how about some more Lunarcy?

I ...

Lunarcy Quilt: Year of the Horse Block Release Day

Happy New Year! I hope that 2021 will hold many moments of friendship, colour and fun for you all. Rainbows all round.

Having said that, I’ve already had my first small 2021 “scare”….. New Year’s Day: the Chameleon dragged himself dejectedly out of bed, claiming that it was time he started acting his age and being responsible. No more silly internet posts for him! On closer inspection, I noticed he was off colour and a little bit hoarse.

Thankfully he was just pranking me and trying to stirrup trouble ...

Lunarcy Quilt: Year of the Goat Block Release Day

Welcome to a special edition of Colour & Inspiration….. yes, it’s a Thursday. One last curveball for you for 2020. Might as well finish the year in the manner to which we have become accustomed! read more

Lunarcy Quilt: Year of the Monkey Block Release Day

And bad Christmas-cracker joke day!

What carol do monkeys like to sing at Christmas time?
Jungle Bells, Jungle Bells!

read more

Lunarcy Quilt: Year of the Rooster Block Release Day

What a fowl year it’s been for many. With a bit of luck though, our collective year of rising roosters is coming to an end. And I’ve got a fitting appliqué to send it on it’s way. Today I am releasing the Year of the Rooster block for the Lunarcy quilt.

It’s been a few weeks since I managed to put out a blog post. Time flies (much more effectively than a rooster) at the best of times… and November/December always have us in an extra ...

Lunarcy Quilt: Year of the Dog Block Release Day

Dog Days: the hot, sultry, uncomfortable days of the Northern Hemisphere summer corresponding to the annual rise of Sirius (the Dog Star) over the horizon. Yuck.

Sirius (and its doggy constellation Canis Major) is a feature of the summer sky here in the Southern Hemisphere too. And since this past week was hot, sultry and super uncomfortable here… I’m proclaiming that our own Dog Days are upon us.

This was Arkaroola on Sunday. What you can’t see is the stinking-hot gales of wind to go with the humidity. It ...

Lunarcy Quilt: Year of the Pig Block Release Day

Another day, another dose of Lunarcy!

Ha! Ain’t that the truth?! Just for something different though, it’s the good kind of Lunarcy scheduled today – we are moving on to the next block of the Lunarcy quilt. Since we are working backwards through the Chinese zodiac (to arrive at the Ox on Chinese New Year 2021), our new block is the Pig. In the zodiac legend, the Pig finished last in the Emperor’s race. There are various versions, but one common story is that the Pig got hungry, had ...

2020 – Year of the Rat

In the beginning there was the Rat. And the Rat jumped the queue.

According to Chinese legend, it was the Rat who (somewhat dodgily) won the Emperor’s race that decided the identity and order of the Zodiac animals. And so it is the Rat who is the first animal of the 12-year Lunar Calendar cycle. As one version of the story goes, the Rat caught a ride in the amiable Ox’s ear to cross a river during the race, but then abused the favour by dashing across the finish line first, claiming the ...

2020: What a Rodent of a Year!

Well, I think it is safe to say 2020, the Year of the Rat, has not gone to plan. I, for one, will be happy to draw a line under this year and recycle all my 2020 New Year’s hopes and plans for 2021. Easiest New Year’s resolutions ever and environmentally friendly too! read more

We’re Baaaaack……!

The Chameleon thought about slacking off and skipping another week…..

I know, right?!

It was nice having last week off, but the Chameleon is not really one to pass up on a bit of monkey business. So here we are – and monkey business is exactly what we shall have today. It’s time to look at the Year of the Monkey block of the Lunarcy quilt.

Also, I thought you might like to see where we travelled last week. We went to Coober Pedy and stayed in an underground dugout apartment. Coober Pedy, is the “opal capital ...

I’m on fire!

I’ve finished three assignments in one week and I’ve sewn down the remaining flowers onto the Lunarcy quilt. I even have a plan for finishing the flower centres, I think. Everything is on schedule for the Chameleon to be able to go AWOL for a few days very soon, touch wood!

Maybe my luck is holding because it is the week to unveil the Year of the Dragon appliqué block. My birth sign, and my favourite block on the Lunarcy quilt. Here he is…. one over-spec’d lizard.

The Chameleon knows a kindred spirit ...

It’s the school mid-year break, so I have plaaaaans!

Since my days have been gifted back to me for a fortnight, I am going to …

• finish all the appliqués on the Lunarcy quilt!
• get ahead on my study assignments!
• finally answer the comments from my last two posts! Got a bit behind there, sorry.
• do more exercise!
• win the lottery!
• bake a whole batch of Sky Pies for the freezer!

LOL. All seriously and increasingly unlikely, but a Chameleon can dream. Since I don’t buy lotto tickets, that second-to-last one can probably be safely ruled out. But some ...

I was going to pass. No blogging this week….

The Chameleon was just not in the mood. Grumpy. Not enough sewing, for one. My laptop ate my homework for another (no joke, literally corrupted my assignment during the last save, between proofread and submit….(&*$%@!!!) and we are all suffering varying degrees of end-of-school-term-itis here, etc etc. Nothing serious. Just pecked to death by the gloom duck, even after hubby helped me retrieve *most* of my assignment from wherever it is that corrupted files go to die.

But then I read through the link ups at last week’s Colour & Inspiration ...

Desert winters are nothing if not unpredictable

Winter is a funny thing in the desert. The nights are mostly bitterly cold, while the days are pleasantly warm. But very occasionally we get a wind blowing in with heat from somewhere, and the night can stay ‘balmy’ for many hours after sunset. We had one of those evenings on Friday night. While the freezing cold nights (think frozen water pipes) are bug-free, warmer evenings bring small collections of brave new winter visitor species we haven’t seen before. Mostly lazy moths decorated in interesting patterns, like this pretty little thing that ...

Thirsty, Busy, Romantic Visitors

June seems to be nesting season at Arkaroola. There are lots of pairs of birds around, and I’ve even been seeing a few different species collecting nesting materials. A Little Crow went past my lounge room window on the weekend with several large sticks in its beak. The Mallee Ringneck Parrots seem to be collecting moss or lichen from my roof. And all the lads have started trying to impress their dinner dates by bringing them to the very exclusive Chameleon’s freshwater café and bar.

The nights here have become very cold recently, which ...

Ladybirds for Luck

So…… This week, things are going pretty well here…… Covid restrictions easing. My latest assignment written (and submitted!) on time. Three more blocks on the Lunarcy finished….. which gives me some breathing space to do some of the pattern writing for a change. And a four day weekend due to a public holiday yesterday combined with a student-free day today…. Puts me in the mood for a lighthearted look at Lady Luck, since that’s where the themes in my sewing room, the great outdoors and my linky inbox seem to intersect this week.

Why luck? The ...